These observational studies have now sparked the conduct of large-scale randomized controlled trials currently ongoing in cancer. We show in this paper that the spectacular effects on new indications or new outcomes reported in many observational studies in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), HRT, and cancer are the result of time-related biases, such as immortal time bias, that tend to seriously exaggerate the benefits of a drug and that eventually disappear with the proper statistical analysis. In all, while observational studies are central to assess the effects of drugs, their proper Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical design and analysis are essential to avoid bias. The scientific

evidence on the potential beneficial effects in new indications Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of existing drugs will need to

be more carefully assessed before embarking on long and expensive unsubstantiated trials. Keywords: Cohort studies, drug effectiveness, drug indications, observational studies, randomized controlled trials, scientific evidence INTRODUCTION The randomized controlled trial is the fundamental paradigm to evaluate the effectiveness of medications in the clinical setting. It is the essential study Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical design required by regulatory agencies to approve the marketing of a drug or a new indication for an existing drug. Despite extensive pre-approval trials, medications can have important Selleck Adriamycin unintended side-effects even if used properly. The epidemiological approach of observational studies has been recognized as an essential tool to address post-marketing drug safety issues and study the actual effects of medications as used in the population, a different Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical situation from the experimental setting in which the drugs were developed and approved. This approach is particularly important for less frequent but severe adverse events or long-term adverse effects that cannot and could not be detected by the randomized trials required for

initial drug approval. Moreover, the use of existing computerized databases arising from the routine collection of data in the usual care of patients has become essential for the rapid conduct Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of these observational studies in this field called pharmacoepidemiology. For example, health care databases worldwide have been used to rapidly assess the risks and benefits of several drugs such as NSAIDs, beta-agonists, anti-depressants, anti-hypertensives, statins, gastric-acid suppressants, corticosteroids, and many others, on major disease Immunity – Cell outcomes.1–9 Another less common situation where observational studies have been used is to uncover new indications for drugs that are already on the market or to assess the effectiveness of such available drugs in the same indication but on new outcomes not studied in pre-approval trials. An example of the effectiveness of a drug on new outcomes is that of hormone replacement therapy (HRT), an effective treatment for menopausal symptoms.